The Witness Stones Project, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to restore the history and honor the humanity of the enslaved individuals who helped build our communities, today announced a new affiliation with Mansfield Middle School. The middle school in Storrs Mansifield, Connecticut, will be using the Project’s curriculum and landscape markers to expand their teaching of the history of slavery in colonial Connecticut.
Students will examine primary source documents, such property, church, and vital records; wills and probate inventories; and census data, in order to understand the reality of slavery and to restore the memory of those individuals who were enslaved. They will learn how to document and describe the dehumanization and paternalism of slavery; the economic and legal framework that supported slavery; and, the agency, resistance, and contributions of the enslaved to our local and national history. Finally, these students will be inviting their communities to witness as they install memorial stones for individuals who were enslaved in their town.
Mansfield Middle School in Northeast Connecticut serves 550 students in grades five to eight. Using interdisciplinary teams of teachers and differentiated instruction in a heterogeneous classroom environment, they strive to ensure that every student reaches her/his greatest potential.
